


Tired of Waiting for the End

by sanctum_c



Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, One Shot, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Serious, Serious Injuries, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24412195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: After Cloud and Tifa left, surely Jessie should fade away. Bleed out, high above the ground. But she was still here despite closed eyes. Gunfire above. The explosion, the felling of the pillar seemed forever stuck in the future. Pained, but lying slumped against the stairs was worse. Sunbathing was little better than this. With a groan, she sat up right. Wave of nausea and the dull ebb of her wounds. No good to Barret up at the pinnacle.Jessie doesn't hang around to die at the pillar; there's still a chance she can get clear in time.
Relationships: Biggs & Jessie (Compilation of FFVII), Biggs & Wedge (Compilation of FFVII), Wedge & Jessie
Kudos: 7





	Tired of Waiting for the End

**Author's Note:**

> From an anon on Tumblr: "What if due to a set of wacky misunderstandings Cloud, Tifa and Barret got squished by the plate drop while Biggs, Wedge and Jessie are left with being the protagonists and saving Aerith and then the world"

After Cloud and Tifa left, surely Jessie should fade away. Bleed out, high above the ground. But she was still here despite closed eyes. Gunfire above. The explosion, the felling of the pillar seemed forever stuck in the future. Pained, but lying slumped against the stairs was worse. Sunbathing was little better than this. With a groan, she sat up right. Wave of nausea and the dull ebb of her wounds. No good to Barret up at the pinnacle.

Regroup, wait for a new opportunity. Get clear in case everything went wrong. She leaned against the guard rail and slid along it, descending the stairs with as much care and speed as she could manage. How long left? No external indicator, no booming count-down. Nothing but the irregular pulse of gunfire.

A slip and she skidded down a whole flight, her ankle jarred. Hopefully not sprained. Jessie hobbled forward, trying to keep a tighter grip on the rail.

She almost reached the ground when she found Biggs. Slumped over a rail, and somehow still breathing. “Biggs?”

“Jessie?” He struggled upright. “Is it over? Is everyone safe?”

“No.” Another risky look upwards. Too far too see anything. Distant movements. “Cloud and Tifa are up there. Hope Barret is too. Would help but-“

“No shape to fight.” Biggs nodded. “We- We should get Marlene out the way. Just in case.”

An excuse, but a genuine concern too. “Right.”

Arms around each other they made it to the ground. So many onlookers still. “Are you crazy?” Biggs yelled. “They’re trying to drop the plate. Get out of here!” A few became worried and ran – back towards the centre of the Sector. “No-“

The shifted crowds revealed a familiar figure on the ground. “Wedge?” Jessie hurried over and knelt beside him. “He’s- he’s still breathing.”

“We need to get him out of here-“ Biggs glanced around.

“Jessie?” Wedge’s voice came out faint.

“Wedge.” Jessie laughed with relief. “We’re going to get you out of here. In case-“ The worry was too huge to voice. “Just let me get Marlene.”

“She’s fine.” Wedge groaned and shifted, struggling, wincing and letting out a sharp groan of pain. “Aeris got her out.”

“Aeris?” Jessie frowned. “Who’s Aeris?”

“Not the time.” Biggs ran his hands across Wedge, probing for injuries. “We need to move. If she’s okay that’s one less thing to worry about.” He raised his voice. “Everyone, get out of the Sector. Now!” A few more onlookers peeled away, but the majority were unwilling to move far.

“How is he?” The invocation for healing spells ready in Jessie's mind.

Biggs shook his head. “He needs a doctor. We need a stretcher-“

Jessie surveyed the area. “Do we have time? I don’t like our odds. We’re going to have to carry him.”

“I can hear you, you know.” Wedge opened one eye. “You two get out of here and leave me. No sense-“

“None of that.” Jessie flicked his forehead.

“Beating a dying man.” Wedge chuckled and winced, his face contorting with pain. Jessie smiled and cast the healing spell. "Thanks."

“We’re getting you out. And I’m sorry, but this is going to hurt-“ Wedge cried out as Jessie and Biggs pulled him from the ground and carried them between them. “One foot in front of the other. Keeping head forward and don’t stop for anything.”

They walked. Step by agonising step. Jessie’s own injuries flaring up with each footfall, each jolt prompting another whimper from Wedge. Biggs clenched his teeth and did not relax. The Shinra guards had deserted their posts, but still so few people making the effort to head for the gate into Sector Six. “People need to know-“

“We’ll get him to safety first. If we still have time.” A helicopter – strangely low - hurtled overhead moments before they reached the plate-gap. Comforting enough to no longer have the upper plate hanging over their head, but they pushed on. The more distance, the better. The pillar remained, the plate still held. A further limping eternity to the other side of a kid’s slide in the play-park.

Wedge placed gently on the far side of the slide, hanging on, but in serious pain now. “Okay. Now we-“

She cut off at the distant roar of an explosion, the upper part of the pillar consumed by fire and it burst outwards. An echoing, ponderous groan and screech of metal warping and stretching. The metallic sky lurched, the plate tearing free of the trivial support provided by the bridges. With shocking speed the plate tipped, the inner edge rushing down into the ground. The thunderous shock knocked Jessie from her feet, a wave of dust and smoke roaring out of the gate. A new cacophony accompanied another impact, another noxious wind washing across the land, almost beyond Jessie’s ability to focus on.

For a long time, Jessie lay still and waited for the world to calm.

Everything was hazy in the aftermath. Almost like mist or fog. It hurt to breathe. A hideous noxious mix of mako, smoke and- None of it bore thinking about. “Biggs?” She croaked, using the slide to stand. Chunks of metallic foundations lay embedded in the stone structure.

“Yeah.”

“Wedge?”

A wheeze. “Still here. Somehow.”

Jessie pulled her shirt over her mouth. “Think anyone else got out?”

“Gotta hope.” Biggs groaned. “This Aeris definitely got Marlene out?”

“Yeah.” Wedge nodded. “Marlene was with her and she came this way.”

Jessie glanced around. “But where now? Where does she live?”

“Sorry. Not a point we got to talking about.” Wedge wheezed.

Biggs frowned. “We need to find you a doctor. Nearest town’s Wall Market-“ Jessie made a face. “I know. But we don’t have much of a choice. Also need to know if anyone can tell us where this Aeris lives.”

How many Aeris’s could there be in Wall Market? In the slums in general? All Wedge could tell them was she wore pink and smelled of flowers. Not much to go on. But they would find her.


End file.
